1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to displaying and inputting characters in a display apparatus, and more particularly, to providing a character-input user interface (UI) in a display apparatus to allow users to input characters with accent (or diacritic) marks, and a UI providing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent displays not only unilaterally provide functions or information to a user, but also respond to a user's request for a variety of functions or information. For example, televisions (TVs) may provide not only a broadcast reception function, but also a user interactive function such as application implementation or web browsing. Accordingly, the recent displays provide a character input UI (e.g., virtual keyboard) to receive a user's request.
Some languages such as French or Spanish include accent (or diacritic) marks added to the characters. In order to support inputting of such accent marks, virtual keyboards may use a method of mapping several characters to one key.
For example, a letter may be converted into a letter modified with an intended accent mark in a toggling manner, i.e., converted in response to a predetermined number of times of inputting the letter to be added with an accent mark on the virtual keyboard within a predetermined time. That is, a small sized device generally supports mapping a plurality of characters, e.g., A, B and C to one key, so that one of the plurality of characters, A, B and C is input when a user presses the key a predetermined number of times. However, when the number of letters mapped to the key increases, the user may experience inconvenience since the user needs to press the corresponding key a plurality of times to input an intended character.
For example, during a process of inputting French, the user may convert alphabet ‘e’ into ‘e’ by pressing ‘e’ on a keypad two times within a predetermined time, and then convert “‘ë’ into ‘é’ by pressing ‘e’ one more time. The above-explained method may cause a user to feel fatigued even when the user is familiar to using languages that have accent marks, because the user are not provided with information about the number of times required to press the key until the intended character is input.